Mirror-image cursive encompassed 13,000 pages of notes and drawings. The topics compose a mini encyclopedia. Detailed studies of flying machines, plants, architecture, babies, emotions, and drapery, are a sampling of the journals Leonardo da Vinci wrote. Many of his studies are written in a manner to make publishing easy. This genius is human; the journals include lists of debtors and weekly groceries.

In 1994, Bill Gates paid over $30M for 18 sheets of paper that contain 72 pages of da Vinci's journal, known as the Codex Leicester. I haven't journaled flying machines, but I have journaled grocery lists, so I have hope for my journal.

What journal author inspires you to document the events, thoughts, and feelings of your life?

Political and military leaders: President Harry Truman or General George S. Patton

Artists: Andy Warhol or Curt Cobain

Writers: Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, or Virginia Woolf

To read the last journal entry of British explorer, Captain Robert Scott before he and his two remaining companions froze to death on their return from Antartica, is chilling.

What journals have you read? How does your tone, style or structure resemble those you appreciate? What published journal is on your reading list?

What elements of your journaling do you want to improve? Are you satisfied with the consistency, length, depth you have written? What is your primary obstacle to improving? What is one step you will take on your next journal entry, to deliver the journaling practice you desire?

What subjects have been taboo, is it time to delve into them? What would need to change for you to begin opening up about these topics? If the journal is not the right forum, who can you talk to about these off-limit areas of your life?

I have been encouraged to read journal entries of the world's elite and learn they don't know everything, haven't mastered all areas of life, and still, have to make a grocery list. Try journaling the mundane, you might become more self-aware today, and maybe tomorrow, someone will pay a fortune for the original.

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